A parafoveal retinal cones analysis using adaptive-optics retinal camera in patients with primary open angle glaucoma.

Objectives: To study the density, spacing, and regularity of retinal cone photoreceptors using an Adaptive Optics (AO) retinal camera (Rtx1, Imagine Eyes, Orsay, France) in patients with Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) and to compare the outcomes with those of healthy age-matched control subjects.

Methods: The study included 43 eyes with POAG and 31 eyes of normal subjects. POAG patients were divided into three groups according to the severity of the visual field defect.

Visually induced analgesia during face or limb stimulation in healthy and migraine subjects.

Background: Visually induced analgesia (VIA) defines a phenomenon in which viewing one's own body part during its painful stimulation decreases the perception of pain. VIA occurs during direct vision of the stimulated body part and also when seeing it reflected in a mirror. To the best of our knowledge, VIA has not been studied in the trigeminal area, where it could be relevant for the control of headache.

Correlation between deep brain stimulation effects on freezing of gait and audio-spinal reflex.

Objective: A network of cortical, subcortical and brainstem structures might be involved in freezing of gait (FOG). Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) could modulate this network. The audio-spinal reflex (ASR), reduced in PD, but increased by treatment, can be used to further investigate that locomotor network.

Cerebral metabolism before and after external trigeminal nerve stimulation in episodic migraine.

Background and aim A recent sham-controlled trial showed that external trigeminal nerve stimulation (eTNS) is effective in episodic migraine (MO) prevention. However, its mechanism of action remains unknown. We performed 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to evaluate brain metabolic changes before and after eTNS in episodic migraineurs.

Effects of visual cortex activation on the nociceptive blink reflex in healthy subjects.

Bright light can cause excessive visual discomfort, referred to as photophobia. The precise mechanisms linking luminance to the trigeminal nociceptive system supposed to mediate this discomfort are not known. To address this issue in healthy human subjects we modulated differentially visual cortex activity by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) or flash light stimulation, and studied the effect on supraorbital pain thresholds and the nociceptive-specific blink reflex (nBR).